Philips sold Schiphol light as a service instead of light fixtures

In April 2015 Schiphol Group, Cofely and Royal Philips announced a new lighting deal for the airport's terminals: Schiphol pays for the light it uses, while Philips remains the owner of all fixtures and installations.

Philips and Cofely are jointly responsible for the system's performance, durability, and eventual re-use and recycling. Because Philips keeps ownership, it designed modular fixtures that last 75% longer than conventional ones and cut electricity consumption by about 50%.

The arrangement is a textbook servitization move: an SSRN study of LED lighting argues that such energy-service models accelerate adoption of efficient technology by removing the buyer's capital and maintenance barriers, which is exactly the barrier Schiphol's terminal project faced.

Sell the light, keep the fixtures

The airport avoids upfront capital and maintenance risk.

Ownership makes durability and efficiency Philips' own payoff.

Modular fixtures cut waste and extend product life.

Outcome pricing creates recurring revenue for Philips.

When the buyer values the outcome, sell the outcome: keeping ownership of the asset forces the seller to design for durability and efficiency, and turns a one-off sale into a long service contract.

Schiphol's terminal lighting became the flagship example of light-as-a-service, and Signify later built circular-lighting service contracts around the same logic of selling light rather than lamps.